This Dad Lives a Double Life as a Porn Star

Shane Diesel has been in the adult industry for over a decade, and his on-point branding has resulted in nothing short of an empire, complete with his own dildo sold nationwide. He spoke to me about dating, his best-known scenes (interracial sex and "cuckolding") and what it feels like to have your penis cast in silicon.

I grew up in Las Vegas and moved to California to become a bodybuilder, which I did for eight years along with personal training. I also got a day job at an airline company, and I still have it. They know what my other career is. They have no problem with it. I switch gears all the time. I work at the airline with a bunch of blue-collar guys and then walk on set and turn into Shane Diesel, and be the personality they think I am, and then shrug that off again once I leave set. It's a double life.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

The first time I had an opportunity to [do porn], I was 27, but I didn't want to do it at that time. My parents were still alive, and it didn't seem right. Then when I was 39, I went to a party and there was this couple there. We started talking, and they told me they were looking for someone to do some web work. "Gonzo" adult stuff [approaching and having sex with porn stars who were planted on the street to seem like civilian women] around 2003. They had a friend they introduced me to who gave me a call and introduced me to a lot of people running adult sites in L.A. Everyone was still on DVD at that time, and I was one of the earliest Internet adult people, so I was fortunate to have my name out there so early when the Internet obviously took over.

More From Cosmopolitan

Being a guy in porn isn't very competitive. A lot of guys say they want to do it, and they reach out on Twitter to me, but 90 percent of them won't, they'll chicken out at the last minute. But for the women, it's incredibly competitive. A lot of girls start at 17 and 18, they know right off the bat they want to be in the adult industry, and they all rush to get an agent and get scenes to make fast money. There's constant high demand for new female talent.

One of my specialties is interracial scenes — it's a niche. The people who watch it are probably from your average white family that's never even interacted with a black person. It started just because, in my personal life, I date all types of women.

How I have sex on camera versus off camera is totally different. When I have sex in my personal life, it's more passionate and romantic. [On a shoot] you have to stop and start often. A lot of posing. Its really frustrating, and it's a routine, but you get used to it.

On camera they usually want you to be more aggressive. A lot of times certain companies want something extreme, and I'm kind of large down there. I used to date basically only women with kids, because if she gave birth to a baby she can definitely handle me. So I know a lot of times, if I actually do it [on set], I'll rip the girl, or hurt her, and that doesn't turn me on, so there are tricks. Like I'll pull a girl's hair and make it look like I'm just reaming her until she's crying, but nine times out of 10 I'm not even inside of her. For me it's all about doing a good scene and turning girls on. I'd estimate when women are doing scenes with me they have real orgasms 80 percent of the time. Then we might get lunch and bullshit afterwards, and if you like them you ask if they want to shoot a scene with you next week.

Eventually when you're able to produce and write your own stuff, you get closer to what you do at home. I'd much rather shoot scenes closer to what I do in private, because that's what a good scene is. When fans come up to me and say, "Wow you were really into that scene, or that girl, and she enjoyed it as much as you did." Whereas the companies that arrange the shoots, there are a lot of outside factors with them: You might not have chemistry with the girl, or she might put in a half-assed performance because she just wants quick money. There's been times on set where they've asked me to work with certain girls and they just weren't my type. I'd prefer to work with someone I'd be attracted to off-camera. Sometimes you'd get directors into the barely legal girls who weigh 80 pounds, and I'm not into that. I like women over a certain age, developed, and pretty much always have. I lost my virginity when I was 18 to a 30-year-old woman.

There used to be fluffers [on set], which was great, and it's something they should have these days too. You're on set all day and your libido only lasts so long, it would really help. If you have a girl who's really into you, she'll help you stay hard. Sometimes basically you're taking orders from a cameraman who doesn't have sex that much. He knows how to work the camera, that's it. I try to stick to the cameramen and companies that I know and trust just to get it done faster.

I was first approached about a dildo within two or three years of working in the industry. I turned down first offer because I wasn't sure if it was the right company to work with. Because I'd talked to guys who had dildos made, and it seemed like they always got screwed over. Like they got a one time fee, and not even royalties on it. Seven years into it, New Sensations approached and I said yes. They said they'd give me royalties on the dildos, and anything else that was branded, like creams. I see a steady flow of money coming in each month.

[The process of getting your dildo mold made is] you have to be totally shaved. They'll ask you your measurements fully hard, width, length. Then you go into a room and they have this metal apparatus with a silicon thing inside it. You have to be as hard as you physically can be, or else the mold won't come out right. They leave the silicon on you for about three to five minutes. The time between having the mold made and having the dildo hit stores was maybe like six months — it took awhile to find the right distributors and the right packaging.

There are four creams and four types of my dildos: Vibrating, standard, blue, and pink. The sales range from about 900 sold in a month to 6,000. A guy once came up to me and told him that my dildo saved his marriage. I think it's great. I'm in it for the money. As far as the whole ego thing, it's cool, but I don't even think twice about it. As long as the money's coming in, I can keep going. Will I want to? Probably not, unless they keep paying me what I'm making now or more. I'm 50 now, and I was going to quit because I was working so much, and they tripled my pay.

People come up to me all the time, and that's a nice feeling. 70 percent of my fans are gay or bisexual fans. I don't do gay scenes, but I support all of my fans, they've been great. It's also married heterosexual couples. I'll be in Target or something and someone will be all excited, like, "I just bought my wife your dildo! We just watched your movies!" I really don't know what to say, because I'm at Target, so I just laugh.

Another type of scene I do a lot is cuckolding, which has really blown up the last few years. I've mastered that, it gives me more work. I let the husband or boyfriend watch me have sex with his wife or girlfriend, and sort of play with his bisexual tendencies without letting him touch me. I say things like "You wish you had this too, you'd probably blow me better than your wife," and stuff like that. I think there are men that are bi and never explored that, and got married, and to spice up their sex lives they get into this. They say to their wife, "I enjoy you being satisfied," but half the time it's basically for them.

I've dated people who have had a problem with what I do. They never do initially — I think they think they want to have sex with me because I do porn and that it'll be the best sex ever, and then feelings happen months later and they start having problems with it. "I only want him to be with me and have sex with me." I get it, which is why I was single for a long time. I just don't like the hypocrisy, they target you because they know what you do and then they have a problem with it.

I would give it up for the right person, but she'd have to be as professional as I am. I've worked two jobs since I was 16. I've dated women in the porn industry, but it can never get serious. It's a good time, and you enjoy it while it lasts, but there's no future there.

I take porn as a side job, I'm not 100 percent into it, whereas the female performers usually think they're going to be these major stars and have a whole career from this, which is not realistic. It's really hard for women to have a non-porn career after they've done this, because they're looked down on. Whereas men can still leave and become police officers or dentists or anything they want.

My son's 29, and he found out that I do porn when he was 24. His girlfriend's parents were watching porn and saw me. He came to me and asked why I didn't tell him, and said how cool it was, and how some of his friends knew my scenes. He wanted me to hook him up. But he's kind of young and immature, and I wouldn't want him to be dealing with the kinds of knuckleheads I deal with. I was smart to wait until I was 39. Dealing with that at a young age can really screw you up.